Celebrating 10th Years of Diamond Open Access Publishing in Advanced Materials

Diamond Open Access (DOA) is a not-for-profit publishing practice that is an upgrade from the Gold model of the open access publishing policy. The diamond open access model works and sustains on the contributions of the non-profit and/or public organization(s). The DOA aims to promote not-for-profit open access publication and avoid obvious high burden on authors and readers for publishing and reading, respectively.

In the Diamond Open Access (DOA) model, authors publish their articles in open-access journals and books without paying any processing and/or publication fee [1]. It means that the authors do not have any financial burden to publish their research work/articles in the open access journals and books. In the meantime, if readers wish to access any of the published papers, they are also not required to pay any cost to publisher for reading. The primary shift towards the model of Diamond Open Access has been because of the belief that scientific research and knowledge can be used for public benefit with not-for-profit publishing practices. It is a model that is intended at facilitating the widespread dissemination of academic knowledge among readers [2].

Since the scientific research and knowledge can be used for public benefit, it should be available and accessible to all citizens regardless of their ability to pay. Over the past years, the open access model or movement has challenged the conventional, i.e., subscription-based publishers by introducing different models such as Gold and Green Open Access. These models had also been successful to force the traditional publishers into changing their publishing practices. However, these two models of publishing have their own challenges to face.

In Gold Open Access, the authors or institutions have to pay article processing charges to get their contents published. They have to pay this up front in order to get access to the published material for free. Green model also faced a lot of challenges that posed a threat to the entire sustainability of the Open Access movement. In this regard, Diamond Open Access is the best model of publishing developed as it tackles both cost and the peer-reviewed quality or other related concerns. DOA is the perfect model that guarantees the sustainability of high-quality open access publishing supported by not-for-profit organizations.

International Association of Advanced Materials (IAAM) is a non-profit scientific organization that advocates the Diamond Open Access (DOA) of academic publishing since its establishment from 2010 [3]. The IAAM publishes journals, proceedings, and books and all are made available to the readers for free. The organization plans all its publication initiatives on the concept of ‘Free to publish and Free to read’. By making high-quality scientific research and knowledge available to the readers free of cost and without any hidden costs, IAAM has been working to make possible the dissemination of knowledge on a high scale. IAAM, as an organization, is of the belief that financial barrier or inability should never be one of the reasons for one to be devoid of knowledge [4].

The world of science is advancing but it can advance at a higher pace if the curse of inaccessibility is removed from the world of scientific publishing, research, and education. Therefore, IAAM regularly utilizes its journals and other platforms to publish high-quality informative articles and papers that are contributed by the best of the scientific minds of the world. By publishing these articles in Diamond Open Access, IAAM intends to serve the entire materials community with principal motive ‘advancement of materials for global excellence’.

Through the journals and other publication activities, International Association of Advanced Materials, IAAM has turned out to be a leading not-for-profit publishing of journals in the area of Advanced Materials science, engineering and technology. Ten years after its establishment, today, IAAM is one of the principal scientific organization that has DOA initiatives [3]. By running all such initiatives, the organization has tried to make sure that the community of advanced materials regularly gets to know about all the advances and progresses made in the field of materials. Because the organization has eliminated all the costs from the process of publishing and reading, it has been successful in creating an environment of learning, ideating, and innovation. Also, by running so many publication initiatives, IAAM has been providing young, upcoming, and the established researchers around the world with prestigious platforms to publish and showcase their work and hard-earned research in front of the global scientific community.

As IAAM releasing this March 2020 issue of Advanced Materials Letters, the organization completed ten years of its DOA publishing initiatives. Ever since the beginning of IAAM, the leadership was very keen on helping people gain access to important and insightful scientific knowledge and research. Because of the commitment of the organization to help people understand science better and inspire them to work forward and take up research, IAAM released Advanced Materials Letters, its first international Diamond Open Access, DOA scientific journal in the year 2010 [5]. After a few years, the organization expanded further on its attempts and released Advanced Materials Proceedings, another international journal that publishes DOA peer-reviewed proceedings, scientific articles and papers [6].

Ten years later, today, IAAM has grown to become a widely renowned DOA publishing organization. Because of the great prestige that is associated with the organization today, it receives a huge number of abstracts and articles to be published in its journals and proceedings books. As a result, in these ten years, through the two journals, IAAM has published around 1750 peer-reviewed articles across a wide range of Advanced Materials. These articles and papers have been contributed by more than 7500 renowned researchers affiliated in the 3000 universities/ institutes/ companies from over 60 countries and have been cited heavily all around the world. Besides this, IAAM has also supported more than 25 books and as many as 30 proceedings [7].

With the hope to help people gain quick and easy access to world-class research and knowledge, IAAM runs all these publishing initiatives on the Diamond Open Access (DOA) model. By offering its platform to upcoming researchers and scientists who wish to showcase their work and gain global audiences, IAAM also promotes people to pursue research in the long term. As the organization embarks on a forthcoming journey in this new decade, it plans on expanding its wings even further and establish new partnerships and collaborations with universities/ educational institutes and industrial giants. In the next decade, IAAM hopes to touch new heights by making ‘Diamond Open Access of Advanced Materials Research and Knowledge for Global Excellent’.

References

• Fuchs, C.; Sandoval, M.; Triple C, 2013, 13, 428.
• Diamond Open Access Policy, viewed 22 February 2020.
• “IAAM: The Leader in Not-for-Profit Open Access Scientific Publishing” blog post 16 October 2019, viewed 22 February 2020.
• “The Story of IAAM – A Journey to Achieving Global Excellence”, blog post 18 August 2019, viewed 22 February 2020.
• Advanced Materials Letters, viewed 22 February 2020.
• Advanced Materials Proceedings, viewed 22 February 2020.
• Tiwari, A.; Adv. Mater. Lett., 2020, 11, 20031481.

This article was originally published as an editorial article, written by Prof. Dr. Ashutosh Tiwari, in the March 2020 issue of Advanced Materials Letters. The content of this article is reproduced with permission from Adv. Mater. Lett., 2020, 11, 20031481, Copyright © IAAM-VBRI Press. The published items of this article including text, photos, and videos, are not meant to be used by any third party without permission.